Flexible liners are oftentimes utilized in conjunction with an intermediate bulk container or bag to ship large quantities of liquid, viscous or granular products. A problem long associated with the use of such liners has been the complete or near-complete evacuation of the contents from within the liner. As such, some liners have included pressurized regions to lift or angle the bottom of the liner in order to move the contents closer to the outlet of the liner. While these devices have aided in the evacuation of the liner they can still result in rather large quantities of content remaining within the liner.
Devices have also been used to lift or tilt the liner to aid in the dispensement of the contents. These devices may tilt the entire liner, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,470, or may tilt only the floor of the liner, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,449. These devices have proved to be difficult to use due to the massive weight of a filled liner.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need remains for an intermediate bulk container liner dispensing system that can more efficiently evacuate the contents. It is to the provision of such therefore that the present invention is primarily directed.